On this old rock pile with a ball and chainThey call me by a number, not a name Lord, LordGotta do my time, I gotta do my timeWith an achin' heart and a worried mind

Doin' My Time - Johnny Cash ​

4.16 The Baffling Case of Father and Son

Vincent

I had always known the day when Tony would need my help might come and I had been preparing his defense for years. I had been confident I would get him out with a light sentence, I had been ready for almost anything, except the possibility that Tony wouldn't let me do my job. All because of the boy he called his son, his family. The Salvatores had been more family to him than this brat who took the stand and testified against him.​

Where I and Tony come from people don't turn their backs on their families.When I was a teenager I witnessed as my uncle Giovanni killed a man with his bare hands. He strangled him, crushed his windpipe. For weeks I couldn't sleep, the image haunted me. Did I hold it against him? No. I've become a lawyer thanks to him. He put his arm around me one day and said, "Vincent, you're going to become the best lawyer in Sicily!"The truth is I was planning to become a famous rock star back then. Fortunately, my uncle was a wise man and saw my future much clearer than I did. "Our family needs an excellent lawyer, mio nipote. You will make your father proud," he said.​My father would most certainly be proud of me, hadn't he been shot to death in a street gunfight two years before I won my first case. And uncle Giovanni would be very sad if he saw me lose this one, because he loved Tony more than his own blood, which was the reason why he adopted him. Technically, we were cousins thanks to that, but I loved him as a brother.

I was so ready to tear that ingrate's testimony apart, make him look like a babbling, mentally unstable wreck. But when I stood up and opened my mouth to do so with immense pleasure, Tony pulled me back. "Vincent, don't," he said in a hoarse voice.

"Don't worry, I've got your back, Tony. This is going to be easy, the boy didn't even see you kill those men," I assured him.

"I know, Vince, but I'm really not comfortable with the idea of unleashing you upon him. I don't want him to end up like the guy you told me about. You know, the one they had to lock up in an asylum after you were done with him."

"Oh, that guy. He was already one foot in there when I started questioning him. Tony, you knew it would come to this. I need to discredit your son's testimony. Did you see the jury's reaction? He's clearly their favourite. We can't have that. And don't forget, the image media created - the good son fighting his evil dad. It works all too well against us. Did I mention that my secretary found some dead rodents and suspicious powder of unknown origin in my mail this morning?"

"I'm sorry, Vincent, but I've changed my mind. I don't want my son to be cross examined by you any more than I want him in my gunsight. Besides, he might need your help one day. If you crush him today, your relationship with him will be problematic."

"My relationship-" I pinched the bridge of my nose. It took all my self-control not to tell Tony where I would send his son if he ever asked for my help. "Don't be an idiot, Tony. Let me do my job or you're going to be in the cooler for a very long time."

​​I turned to the judge. She was getting impatient. The Heffner boy kept avoiding his father's gaze very carefully. I was going to teach him a lesson about family, because unlike him I recognized its value.

"You're fired, Vincent!" Tony hissed at me.

I turned around and looked at him incredulously. "You can't fire me now!" I whispered back.

"I can and I will if you start interviewing my boy!"​

Did he go completely crazy? He's practically asking me to throw away his case. I can't do that! Uncle Giovanni would have me skinned alive if I let that happen, had he still lived.

"Mr. Salvatore, are you and your client done consulting? We are waiting patiently, but we don't have all day," the judge urged.

"Uh... I have no questions for the witness, Your Honor," I heard myself saying and the little guy in my brain started banging his head against the inside of my skull violently.

​The audience in the courtroom collectively gasped in surprise, relieved that I let Chris Heffner get away so easily. They loved the boy which was a mystery to me, because he was clearly a case for a shrink. He looked panic-stricken for a moment when he was leaving the stand. I would have wondered why if I wasn't too busy swearing in good old Italian under my breath.

All went downhill from that moment on. Tony didn't even let me summon Kellie Heffner who offered to testify in his favour. Not that it would help our case much, but I was grasping at straws at that point. Showing them Tony isn't as heartless as the prosecutor described him could have won us favour with at least some members of the jury. However, Tony refused to "drag another kid into this mess". Another kid! Kellie Heffner looked nothing like a kid from what I got the chance to see. Tony remained adamant though.

​With all the aces taken away from my hand I had nothing to play with and naturally we lost.

​For some reason I couldn't fathom, Tony didn't seem one bit concerned by the prospect of spending the rest of his days in prison. All he cared about was his son who he kept watching all the time.

* * * * *

Maximum Security Prison, Oasis Springs

I haven't seen Tony until my first visit in the prison.

Had I expected to find him humbled and depressed I would have been terribly disappointed. The man sitting opposite me might have looked a bit dishevelled for his standards, but he was grinning from ear to ear.

​"Feeling at home here already, Tony? Look at you, the orange really makes your eyecolour pop! It's almost impossible to believe I had such a hard time to convince you to wear the blue tie for your trial."

"How's your job, Vince? Any new clients lately, hm?"

That one hurt. My family wasn't happy with the outcome of Tony's trial and they were making me feel their dissatisfaction every damned day. I had Tony to thank for that.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"To check if the prison food agrees with you."

Tony grimaced.

"And to ask you to add another name on the list of your visitors beside your son's."

Tony's eyebrows shot up."Whose?"

"His sister's. Kellie Heffner expressed her wish to visit you."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "She didn't say. I didn't ask. I can't wrap my head around it either, but it seems there's at least one person in that blasted family who wants to see you and talk to you. Are you sure she's not your daughter? You should have had a daughter, Tony. You are better with women than with guys."

He snorted. "Funny. Somebody told me once I was terrible with women too. Fine, I will put Kellie on the list. Anything else?"

I sighed and broached the subject none of us wanted to discuss. "Should I contact the Salvatores back home? They would find a way to get you out of here."

Tony shook his head resolutely. "No. We both know what the price would be. I don't want to work for them again. Asking them for help is the last option."

"I hear you. Is there anyone else I can speak to on your behalf?"

"As a matter of fact, I'd like to spend some time here," he said thoughtfully.

"Don't tell me this was your plan all along, Tony, because that would really piss me off. You could have pleaded guilty and save my reputation the humiliating defeat."

"No, I didn't plan that, Vincent, but since I'm here, I may at least spend my time doing something useful. You see, I hit a dead end in my search outside. Some of the inmates used to work for people I personally had no ties to. They might be willing to trade information."

"Are you still hunting for the man who..."

"Who killed Beryl? Yes, I am."

"He could be dead by now."

"He's not. I would know. The information about his death would reach me, I made sure of it."

I nodded. This was a sensitive topic. Tony may have recovered from the worst, but I knew that the guilt for Beryl's Heffner death never stopped pressing heavily on him. Thinking back on it made me feel uneasy too, because of the part I played in the whole tragedy. I cleared my throat. "How do you plan to proceed?"

Tony laughed heartily. "Oh, I haven't told you about my cellmate yet, have I? When I booked in this kid was so stricken with fear to be in the same cell with me that he almost peed himself. I have no idea what stories the other inmates told him about me, but he was practically crawling at my feet when he saw me. He offered me almost everything from his bunk and all his meager possession to sexual favours."

"I'm glad you're not suffering from the lack of anything essential in here. How old is he and what's he in for?"

"Possession and dealing. He's about Chris' age," at the memory of his son Tony's face mirrored his heartache. "It may not sound so, but he's street smart. He knows his way around."

He waved my concerns away. "He's my eyes and ears here now. I know he will get me what I need sooner or later." ​​​

I stood up. The time of my visit was up. "Good. You'll need some friends, if you are to survive here."

"Who said anything about friends? It's all about power and favours and protection."

"Then I hope for your sake that you did what was necessary to get those things."

​Last thing I saw before I left was Tony's smile.​

​* * * * *

Tony

Days pass slowly when you have all the time in the world. I was reading a lot and thinking about my son. When I saw him at the court I could tell that he hadn't found the peace he was looking for. There was nothing else I could do to help him as long as he kept avoiding me.

However, I found an unexpected ally in Kellie.​ She kept me updated on my son's life. More or less. Our conversations were somewhat awkward at first, but it got better with each visit. Those were getting more and more frequent.

"What's new, Princess? How is Chris doing?"

"Please, don't call me that, Tony. I'm not a little girl anymore."

No, she wasn't, as I noticed to my delight. I bet she wouldn't throw away a red dress today. She looked much more self-confident now, although still not as much as she should be.

"Chris and I, we still haven't been talking much, since our disagreement we had about what he did to you. But I'm sure I will convince him to visit you. Eventually. We need to give him more time."

And then it hit me, the reason why she kept coming to see me. "My friend Vincent told me I should have had a daughter," I said and watched her intently. "It would be nice and much easier, wouldn't you say, Kellie?"

She stopped breathing for a moment. Her eyes spoke of craving to be loved as a daughter. Was she really looking for it in me? I was such a lousy father to two boys. What could I possibly offer her, especially now? She should find herself a husband and have her own children to fullfil her dream of a complete family.

"But it is what it is," I said before she found words again. "Besides, nobody deserves a father like me. If I was your father I wouldn't be happy to see you visiting a prison three times a week. You should be having fun, going on dates, dancing all night through, not sitting here in the evenings chatting with a criminal. If our friendship means anything to you, Princess, don't come back until next month or rather the month after that and you better tell me then you have a boyfriend with whom you have spent a fantastic vacation. And don't be so mad at Chris. I'm not mad at him either."

​Kellie opened her mouth and closed it again. Then she slowly rose from the chair. "I don't mind coming here," she said almost apologetically.

"Holy Watcher, you are still here?"

And then she was gone.

Damn, I should ask Vincent why he never offers such a great view when he's leaving.

* * * * *

More days passed. On one of them my cellmate got me worried, because he almost didn't make it back to our cell before the curfew.

"Eun! Where have you been? What happened to your face?"

"It's nothing, it was worth the news I've got for you, Tony. I've found someone who might have the information you are looking for."

I wanted the information badly, but I was also growing fond of Eun and I didn't like the idea of him risking his life because of my vengeance that he has nothing to do with.​

I sat him on the bunk and settled next to him. "You have done enough, Eun. Tell me who I should talk to and let me handle the rest. I don't want you to get hurt again."

"That's not how it works," he said. "They won't speak with you directly. Not yet. I'm the Mediator. Sometimes the exchange of information happens without any of the sides ever meeting each other. I do this all the time. They need me. They can't harm me."

"Your face says otherwise."

He smiled. "This was just a reminder that I may be useful and there may be an unspoken agreement not to harm me, but I don't have anyone particular to actually protect me."

Vincent was right. I underestimated Eun. His status in the prison hierarchy was better than I had assumed. "Is this why you're helping me?"

​He scratched his jaw. "Your reputation is scary. I was afraid that you were an unpredictable psychopat and I wished for nothing but peaceful coexistence with you. I admit I'm now hoping to be allowed to find a cover in the large shadow you cast, Tony Corleonesi." ​I doubted my reputation could keep me safe, let alone the two of us. And a shadow, no matter how large, could never stop a knife, but if Eun wanted to believe it, who was I to argue with him about it? "Alright, I will follow your lead in the information exchange matter, Mediator. If everything goes well, we can discuss the cover and shadow stuff."

"He's fucking grinning like an imbecile, because he knows he won't stay here for long."

"What do you mean?"

"This whole thing is one big farce, Javi. Do you really believe the asshead Heffner would send his daddy to prison just like that? His daddy who gave him a nice expensive car for his birthday? The daddy he always defended with such vigor?"

"I really don't know, Max."

"Well, lucky for you I do know. Of course he wouldn't! This is his daddy helping him to become the big hero. You heard it in the news, they're going to promote him to a fucking detective and I will bet you anything they won't stop at that, because he handed them his daddy on a silver platter. Everyone praises him, because they're stupid and blind! As soon as this whole media storm blows itself out, the legacy boy will come and save his daddy."

"How could he make that happen?"

"He's a fucking cop, that's how! But he picked the wrong prison to hide his daddy in. We will make sure there'll be no daddy to save when the time comes. The grinning motherfucker dies before his bastard gets a chance to set him free."

"But... but he killed a hundred people, Max. We never killed anyone. I don't know if I can do it. And have you heard what they say about him? Why they call him the Meatball? Because he always cuts off his victim's-"

"Tall tales! And I never said we'd do it ourselves. There are more qualified individuals here who will do the job for us. They just need a proper motivation, which we will provide."​

Author's note: This time my thanks go to Leeuska for helping me (or was it the other way round?) with the Newcrest Courier and Tony's memorable speech (you made me cry and you know that); to Pammiechick and CitizenErased for letting me borrow Eun who caught my eye in Ashes to Ashes legacy story; to OrangePlumbob for letting me borrow the prisoners from the amazing story Second Chances.